“We’ll discuss that later. Right now send some ships to that farm where the strange ship was killed.”
“I had a ship on the moon there.”
The Collective sent his senses to the farm planet and could only sense the population in the garrison. It saw that it was greatly reduced in size. There was no indication that the ship was there, “The ship is not responding. Get the ships that came back from the search to go there now!”
“All of them?”
“Yes, and send any others that are available.”
“The orders are going out.”
Admiral Zergl looked at his display and said, “Are you charged and ready?”
Major Draygen nodded, “We could always load more inventories into the skin, but that would take more time.”
“What you have will have to be enough; teleport to your ship and go assist the Queen. Make sure of her safety.”
Dragen hit his com, “Report to the landing bay and charge your weapons. We will be teleporting to the planet momentarily and assisting in the defense of the three colonies. Remember, we do not know if this coating will protect us or how long it will hold up to their beams. Do not allow yourself to be a stationary target. Teleport now.”
The fifty Red Warriors teleported into the Landing bay of the small attack ship and Captain Ethan Rucker hit his com, “Belt in; we’re jumping in twenty seconds.” Ethan charged the ship’s weapons and counted down the jump. The small ship disappeared in a purple flash.
The Collective sent a thought to the Garrison Leader, “What is happening?” The Leader thought about the last three hours and the Collective watched his thoughts. It sent its senses into the garrison and the Military Quadrant totaled the remaining inventory.
Military ordered, “Send all your survivors and attack. You have ninety thousand and you will have to overwhelm the forces facing you. Kill everyone in the three farms.”
“Jake?”
“Yes, Junior?”
“More than 400,000 ships have jumped in at the jump limit and are moving in-system. They will arrive in less than ten hours.”
“Junior, if the transports don’t arrive in time I want you to take Valerie and jump away.”
“I’ve promised her not to go without you. You must go with us or she will stay.”
“Junior, you must save her. She’s the Queen.”
“Yes, but you are our only hope of survival. I’ve doubted her, but now I believe she’s right. Either you go with us or we all die here.”
Jake didn’t want to live if he had to leave the colony to the Keepers, but he knew that he could not allow Valerie to die. “I’ll make the decision when there are no other options, Junior. Do not lose a lock on her; do you understand?”
“I won’t, Jake, but I also have you locked in on my board. Don’t block me, Jake.”
“Pray I won’t have to, Junior.”
Cynthia screamed into Jake’s com, “Massive forces leaving the building! I’m targeting the air units!”
Jake looked out at the garrison and saw thousands of Keepers’ vehicles and troops pouring out of the ground around the central building. He teleported to the ground next to Cynthia as thousands of beams ripped through the space he had just occupied. Jake watched everything go into slow motion, but saw so many black lines going out into the oncoming horde that he knew he could not hit them all. He released his armor and began teleporting away from the incoming beams and projectiles being fired at him. His armor took on a life of its own as wasps, hornets, beams, and auto cannon projectiles left in a solid wave of death. The front ranks of the oncoming Keepers were obliterated by Jake’s and Cynthia’s combined fire.
Cynthia thought to Jake, “I told you this was not good on Ross.”
Jake killed twelve Keepers’ aircraft as they approached the row of hills, “Yes, you did, but admit it; aren’t you having fun?”
Cynthia hit eight more circling around to the left, “Yes, but don’t tell anyone.”
Jake smiled, then felt his rage build. The Keepers were gaining ground, but they were dying by the thousands.
The Humans could hear the explosions moving closer and knew that a massive battle was happening just over the hills from their colony. Valerie thought, “Junior, what’s happening?”
“Jake and Cynthia are holding off more than eighty thousand Keepers.”
“Junior, you have to get them out of there.”
“I would if I could, but Jake is still blocking my efforts.”
“Junior, can you scan Jake and get a reading on the level of his psychic power.”
“Yes, but why do you want me to do that?”
“I want to make sure he has really been released.”
“Standby, I’ll send the reading to your com.”
Valerie looked at her com, saw the reading was at the top of the psychic meter, but no higher than her own reading. “Junior, it’s not high enough. He has not been fully released.”
“What are you talking about, Valerie? I felt the psychic wave that killed those Keepers.”
“Junior, that wave came off the shell holding his powers in. He is not fully released. He still has to touch his initiator.”
“Valerie, we don’t have time for him to touch everyone again.”
“He doesn’t have to, Junior; I am his initiator.”
Junior was speechless.
“I felt him the first time I touched him, but I did not release him so I assumed it was someone else. I was bonded to him that day; we have to get him to come here.”
“If he comes here then the colony and you will die.”
Valerie screamed, “He must come here! It’s our only chance.”
Jake saw that he was not going to stop them all. The Keepers were only a mile from the break in the hills that would lead them to the Human colony. He felt a huge weight of sorrow and wondered why his psychic powers were not able to overcome this enemy. Suddenly the entire front of the Keepers blew up in huge explosions. Ethan Rucker came in over the row of hills in stealth mode. The fifty Red Warriors teleported out of the ship and took up positions on each side of Jake and Cynthia as Ethan released his weapons and fired a barrage of high speed penetrators into the front ranks of the advancing Keepers. He then teleported forty miles past the garrison and turned to line up another pass.
The Collective was watching the battle take place from the mind of the Garrison’s Leader as he directed his troops from his bunker. When the explosions started at the front of their advance the Collective could feel the Keepers being killed. This was a new experience for the Collective, and caused a high level of consternation. He detached himself from the Garrison Leader and asked the Military Quadrant, “How are they attacking our front? Those projectiles came out of nowhere.”
“It has to be a ship that is invisible to our sensors. This species has also found a way to hide their thoughts from us.”
“How much longer before the fleet arrives at the farm?”
“Seven intervals.”
The Science Quadrant added, “I would recommend that you not connect with the forces at the farm. We don’t know how they hit us, and it could happen again. Those forces must be isolated from the Collective.”
The Collective examined that suggestion and almost disagreed, but it still felt the shock of the disorganization of its components, “Military, assign someone to keep contact and send us reports. Separate yourself from us and keep us informed.”
Jake watched the Red Warriors knock the front line of the Keepers back three miles, then he saw the beam platforms being aimed at their position, “Teleport behind their lines now!” The Warriors teleported away just before seventy of the focused beams hit the hill they were on. The entire hill disappeared. The Keepers began advancing again just as Ethan came roaring in. He released a six mile wide barrage of hornets that targeted the beam platforms and any other mobile weapon. One of the platforms saw the hornets leave from midair and fired in front of the barrage.